One Woman's Journey into the realm of Family History

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Welcome to The Lives of Serfs and City Folk!

Welcome to my new blog, “The Lives of Serfs and City Folk: One Woman’s Journey into the Realm of Family History”!

I have been doing family history research for almost 15 years, although my interest in family history has gone back much further. When I was little I was assigned a school project to research my family nationalities, and I proudly created a report that stated I was “half Czech, one-quarter Italian, one-eighth German, and one-sixteenth each Swedish and Norwegian”. Little did I know this second grade project would lead to a lifetime of research that would take those fractions and explode them across the globe!

Like may researchers, I make mistakes. Unlike many researchers, I try my best to correct those mistakes. I know it’s super fun to dream about being related to the Tudors or Lincoln or Jesus, but unless I am absolutely certain of the line, I will never, ever publish my findings. I’m sure Jesus will forgive me.

I also do not copy other people’s work unless they have appropriately sourced their research and I can confirm sources. I learned this lesson early on when I had to throw out an entire line of over 50 ancestors because I had copied research that was not accurate. I also had to tell many of my family members I was wrong after being so excited to tell them about the connection. I didn’t like having to admit I was wrong, and I hope never to have to do it again.

I am writing this blog about genealogy research, historical topics that are related to my family’s history and many fun stories I’ve run across in the process. I’ve traced my roots around the globe and sometimes back more than 500 years in time. I have even delved into the world of DNA testing to a certain extent, although I remain in a wait-and-see mode on the results for now. I’m sure I’ll have a blog post or two on that topic as well.

I want to thank my mother for giving me the idea of this blog. I think she told me to do this because she was tired of me calling her up to tell her the lastest news about her family background at odd hours of the day. Dad is probably tired of it too, since his family has been harder to trace and I don’t have as many good stories for him. I’ll see what I can do to make this a balanced blog for them both, and an entertaining and educational one for the rest of you!

If you happen to run across this same blog in Blogger, yes, it’s me! I am trying to decide if I want to move the blog over here to WordPress permanently. I’m looking for comments and dialogue, so please comment!